English Organ Sonatas 4

The organ sonatas of Francis Edward Gladstone (1845-1928) are fine examples of the developing English sonata tradition of the late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century. They exemplify a practical approach to the instrument with consistently moderate technical demands while also allowing the player scope for interpretation with the increasing availability of instruments that were conceived with a symphonic tonal palette in mind.

As discussed in The Genesis and Development of an English Organ Sonata (2017), the English sonatas had an important pedagogical role jointly inherited from Mendelssohn’s very practical and popular approach to the instrument and the continued European legacy of the lesson-sonata tradition whereby in learning a piece you also learned the instrument and vice versa.